BIG Lab News & Gallery

20th August 2025. Congratulations to Sara who was awarded a prestigious Enterprise Partnership Scheme PhD scholarship.  The Enterprise Partnership Scheme is a national initiative linking excellent researchers in all disciplines to enterprise. Sara will commence her PhD in September 2025. 

15th August 2025. Congratulations to Leanne, Victoria and the rest of the MSc in Diagnostics and Precision Medicine (MDPM) and MSc in Biotherapeutics (MPBT) students who completed their Masters degrees. A coffee morning was hosted by Dr Paul Leonard (MDPM Programme Chair) and Dr Janosch Heller (MPBT Programme Chair). 

14th August 2025. Caroline was joined in Lough Neagh by the '10 Things to Know About' (https://www.facebook.com/10thingstoknowabout/)  film crew to demonstrate how her research is being used to monitor toxins from harmful algae blooms at the lake.

26th May 2025. Marta, Caroline and Patrick presented their research at the AquaBioSens consortium meeting held in FORTH, Crete. The team were joined by leading experts from around Europe sharing insighs and new innovations in on site biological sensing for aquatic pollutants and biohazards

25th May 2025. Paul, Caroline, Marta and Patrick arrive in Crete for the AquaBioSens (www.aquabiosens.eu) consortium meeting. An exciting 3 days of research collaboration and communication ahead!

 21st April 2025. The BioInnovation Group welcomes Leanne Burke (Masters in Diagnostics and Precision Medicine project student) and Victoria Sherwood (Masters in Biotherapeutics project student) to the lab to work on two separate projects related to CRC diagnostic development. One project is in collaboration with a European Biotech and the other in collaboration with TCD.

12th Dec 2024. We are delighted to celebrate the award for Associate Prof. Paul Leonard (Overall Winner Richard O’Kennedy Award).

The Richard O'Kennedy Awards were established to recognise the contributions of staff members across the Faculty of Science and Health, these awards honour the work of Prof. Richard O’Kennedy, the role he played in the life of DCU, and the values which he epitomises. Prof. O'Kennedy is pictured with Paul after receiving his presitigous award.

27th Sept 2024. Marta, Caroline and Patrick brave the weather to demonstrate a new modified immunoassay that can be performed at the water side in the car boot for the detection of HAB toxins in less than 40 mins using recombinant antibodies produced in the lab.

11th Sept 2024. InSingulo's  mission is to provide the most sensitive and productive label-free bio-sensing technology for drug development, diagnostics, and quality control (insingulo.com). Paul provides scientific and business development support to InSingulo AB. 

5th Sept 2024. DCU hosted members from the Horizon Europe funded AquaBioSens project at the NRF building on our Glasnevin Campus. The DCU team led by Prof Fiona Regan and Dr Paul Leonard welcomed the consortium and hosted two days of innovative research talks and collaborations. 

1st Feb 2024.  

Congratulations to Roozbeh who was awarded a DCU Bioterapeutics programme funded PhD  scholarship working on a project entitled '  

Biotherapeutics for Inflammatory Skin Diseases'. This project is co-led and supervised by Dr Achilleas Floudas (Translational Immunology Group),  Dr Mike Freeley in the School of Biotechnology at DCU and Dr Paul Leonard in the School of Biotechnology.

1st Jan 2024. The aquabiosens.eu project offically starts.  AquaBioSens develops handheld devices to measure aquatic hazards and pollution, supporting the EU Mission to “Restore our ocean and waters by 2030”. The devices use novel analytics, such as immunoassays, environmental RNA quantification, and whole cell biosensors, coupled with advanced sensors, such as acoustic biosensors, fluorimetry, and organ-on-chip devices. The devices are low-cost, accessible, and connected to the web. They will be tested and validated in coastal and freshwater sites in the UK, Ireland, and Greece, and disseminated to the international community. AquaBioSens aims to commercialize the new technologies.